Alive
by Erimenthetic
Summary: In which Five returns to Abel following 'A Voice in the Dark.' Spoilers through Mission 9.


His eyes won't adjust as he stumbles out of the comms shack, tonight of all nights Jenine has finally agreed to light it, and into the inky black night. And even though the klaxons are still blaring at the gates, and he has just watched her sprint past the last camera, he's still panicking. "Five!" he shouts. "Five! Five!" His heart thuds heavily, where was she? Sam barely has the time to make out the blur of motion before she slams into his chest. His breath escapes him in a deep shudder, and his eyes slip closed. "Five, oh god, Five." Alive, she was really alive.

Her whole body trembles in his arms, whether from her sweat-soaked clothes or fear, he can't tell. He holds her for a long moment, hands pressing her tightly, feeling her flesh firm and solid beneath. He's never had a runner come back, he thinks. Almost twenty hours gone, and now she's back and warm in his arms.

The first strike lands on his lower ribs, the second on his right shoulder. He pulls back, confused and a little stung, but the blows keep coming. They're not _that _ painful, but that's probably due to Five's exhaustion. He grabs her wrists, "Five, what-"

He hisses as her elbow connects solidly against his solar plexus. "They're not the lucky ones, Sam! They're not the-" she bucks against his hold, "lucky-" a weak fist into his stomach, "ones!" His words rush back to him, leaving a foul taste in his mouth. "No, oh Five, I'm so sorry, we're the lucky ones, of course we are." She ends her attack, but it's quickly replaced by a wave of sobs, which Sam's not sure is necessarily an improvement. What was one supposed do with a crying female? He settles for scooping her up in his arms.

"Let's get you to the hospital, huh, Five?"

He can feel her hiccupping breath as she whispers into his neck, "-not the lucky ones."

"No," he agrees, "they're not."

His shirt is wet with her tears and sweat by the time they cross Abel to the hospital where Maxine is ready and waiting. Sam isn't completely sure he's not hallucinating the moisture edging the doctor's eyes. "Welcome home, Runner Five." Five lets out a sob in response.

"She's crying."

"So I see, Mr. Yao, thank you."

"I don't- she's crying a lot."

Maxine shoots him a bemused sort of half-grin. "She's in shock, Sam. Why don't you put Runner Five down on the cot here."

Sam moves to do as she asks, but it soon becomes apparent that Runner Five has no interest in removing her hands from around his neck. "No," she whispers, "you can't go." She looks up at him with great glossy eyes that remind him of the look his little sister used when she wanted to play with his friends, or needed him to lie to their dad. She's a little girl all of the sudden, tiny and fragile, and it scares Sam half-to-death.

He remembers when she came sprinting into town after the helicopter was shot down, Alice on her tail and a gash in her head that would cause retrograde amnesia bad enough to wipe several months from her memory. She'd been so strong, barely batted an eye before she took up her new position in Abel. Now she's small and scared, but damned if Sam's not going to let her hold on if she needs to.

"Hey Five, I'm not going anywhere, okay? But the doctor here needs to look you over, yeah? So why don't you just hold my hand for a little bit?" Five is slow to move at first, but gradually moves her hands down Sam's arm until they're clasped tightly between his own. "That's my girl."

"Very good, Mr. Yao. Now, Runner Five, I need you to drink as much of this as you can, alright?" Maxine hands over a bottle of water mixed with what looks to be powdered sports drink, and probably, Sam acknowledges, crushed pain killers. Five nods and sips obediently. "Good, can we take off your pack?"

They do, though it is a slow process as Five is hesitant to let go of Sam's hand for even a split second. He can tell she's starting to come back to them though, her pulse is settling, and her eyes are tracking more of Dr. Myers' movements. A few more sips of her bright orange water, and Five shakes herself like a wet dog. "Sorry, sorry, I'm trying."

"You're doing fine, Five, we've got you."

"My leg, I hurt it. Fell down a hill, got caught up with an axe I was carrying. Didn't see the zoms in time to plan a good path. Didn't see the hill. Really bloody. Hurts like hell." She tries to take off her cargo pants with just one hand and without standing up. Dr. Myers tuts and pushes her hands out of the way before cutting the leg of her pants completely off. His face is about to catch fire, Sam is pretty sure, just as he's pretty sure Five will kill him if she remembers any of this tomorrow. But then he's distracted by the torn, dirty wound marking the pretty pink skin of her upper thigh.

"Damn."

"You didn't think to stop and bandage this?"

"Zombies," is all Five replies.

The wound is too old for stitches, Maxine explains, but she grabs the antiseptic and begins to clean. Sam flinches with every hiss Five lets out. He can't even protect her from this, after all she's been through, and after he was the one to recommend her for the mission. It seems like hours later when Maxine is finally done.

"Bandages," Five forces out between teeth still clenched against the pain. "There are big bandages in my pack."

Maxine strews the contents out along the counter, and she and Sam let out nearly synchronized gasps. Hundreds of bottles of pills roll along the counter, and none of them look anything like the bottles of over-the-counter medicine which currently stocks Abel's hospital. There are thick sleeves of bandages, too, and syringes still packed in their sterile casings, and there at the bottom-

"Is this a defibrillator?" Maxine asks, and Sam can hear the near reverence in her voice.

"Ran into a clinic that hadn't been looted. Brought everything I could carry."

Maxine runs gentle fingers along the plastic casing, but doesn't take much longer to return to taping up Runner Five's leg. "You need to come back every couple of days to make sure infection isn't setting in, and no running until I say so, alright?"

It warms Sam's heart to see Five spark with protest, even if it is a stupid one, "I have missions, Maxine, I can't just-"

"Your missions for the next week have already been redistributed among the other runners. Right now you need to focus on getting better."

Maxine's words, though meant to comfort, only serve to remind both Sam and Five that six hours ago everyone thought she was dead. Six hours ago, for all intents and purposes, she was dead. She shifts her body closer to his on the narrow cot, and he places a gentle kiss along her hairline. And then another, because, hey, when will she ever let him this close again?

"Alright, Runner Five, let's check you for bites, and get the rest of that grime cleaned off."

"But Sam-"

"Will either stay or go, whatever you want, won't you, Sam?" Maxine finishes. He can feel the blood rush to his face, but nods anyway. Not that he'd be adverse to staying and watching, exactly, he just always saw himself as the sort of guy who might buy a girl's dinner first, or, you know, marry her or something.

Five doesn't look very happy with the options either. She's wearing an odd combination of flushed cheeks and panicky eyes which twist something odd in his stomach. "Sorry, sorry, I'm being silly."

"Stop apologizing, Five." Sam's voice comes out deeper than he means it to. "How about this? I'll go stand facing the corner over there, and you girls can tell me when to turn around." Maxine sends him a nod of approval over Five's head, so he squeezes her hands and then disentangles himself from her embrace.

He tries as best he can to not listen to the soft sounds of clothing being discarded behind him, but nearly forgets himself and turns at Five's soft voice, "Sam?"

"Yeah, Five?"

"Thanks for staying."

When Maxine sounds the all clear, Sam releases a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding. She's going to be fine. Twenty hours with the zombies, but no bites. He tucks the blankets around her tightly, and takes the hand she reaches out to him. Fatigue has caught up with her, and her eyes are already closing. His hand she pulls against her chest and curls around it just a little.

She blinks up at him through sleep-lidded eyes. "Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"I know it's not the same, but, I'm proud of you, Sam. You're a good man, Sam Yao." She smiles a bit and falls almost instantly asleep.

And well, if he's crying after that, it's damned well deserved, isn't it?


End file.
